What’s new: State-owned automaker Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp. Ltd. (JAC) (600418.SH) plans to build a vehicle platform that will make use of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.’s smart car technology to produce luxury electric cars, a government document showed.
JAC plans to make a multipurpose vehicle on the platform, called X6, which was designed to be able to produce up to 35,000 vehicles a year, according to an environmental impact assessment report on a JAC project submitted to Anhui province’s environmental regulator.
JAC will jointly develop the X6 platform with Huawei, a person close to the carmaker told Caixin. The source said that the first electric vehicle (EV) co-developed by JAC and Huawei is expected to hit the market by the end of this year, but didn’t specify whether the EV will be built on the X6 platform.
The X6 platform is part of the JAC project, under which the carmaker plans to build a separate vehicle platform, called DE, which will be used to make affordable EV models, according to the report. The DE platform will have a planned annual production capacity of 165,000 cars.
The JAC project is set to be completed next year, according to a notice from Anhui’s Development and Reform Commission.
The background: JAC is working with Huawei under the latter’s Smart Selection business model, which allows partners to tap the smartphone-maker’s flagship stores as car showrooms while giving Huawei more of a say over the development and marketing of the vehicles involved.
Other Smart Selection partners include Seres Group Co. Ltd. (601127.SH), Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. and BAIC BluePark New Energy Technology Co. Ltd. (600733.SH).
Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
